ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Mets essentially decided on their Opening Day roster Friday by cutting six players after a 4-2 exhibition loss to the Rays: Bobby Parnell, Nelson Figueroa, Kiko Calero, Russ Adams, Chris Carter and Elmer Dessens.

That means the bullpen will likely include the following seven pitchers: Francisco Rodriguez, Pedro Feliciano, Jenrry Mejia, Ryota Igarashi, Hisanori Takahashi, Fernando Nieve and Sean Green. And the last bench spots will go to Frank Catalanotto and Ruben Tejada.

Pitcher Raul Valdez and catcher Omir Santos are technically still in camp but are expected to be cut before the Mets head north Saturday night.

Figueroa is out of options, meaning he’ll be placed on waivers and, if he clears, can opt to become a free agent. He said two weeks ago that he might opt to play in Japan rather than report to Triple-A Buffalo. The other five players cut Friday will be sent to Triple-A Buffalo.

Why were they cut?

Parnell: He impressed the Mets with his velocity last year and auditioned for a job in the starting rotation late in the season. But the lack of an off-speed repertoire made him ineffective as a starter and ultimately prevented him from keeping his spot in the bullpen this spring. “We like Bobby Parnell a lot,” Mets general manager Omar Minaya said. “I think sometimes you’re going to have situations where you just need to go work on a certain pitch. You need to work on something.... Bobby, though he throws velocity, we want to see some of his off-speed stuff get better.”

Calero: The Mets signed Calero to a minor-league deal in early March, but he wasn’t overly impressive. In seven spring games, he had a 5.68 ERA. “I think what happened with Calero was coming into camp a little bit late, we didn’t really get to see the Calero that we believe there,” Minaya said, “so we told him to go to Buffalo and we might be seeing him here sometime before the year is out.”

Carter: The 27-year-old outfielder/first baseman impressed the Mets by hitting .393 with four homers this spring. They also loved his intense demeanor. But he has minor-league options remaining, so it was easier to send him down than risk losing the veteran Catalanotto. “We’re very happy to have him, and as I told him, we like him short term, we like him long term and I expect him to be here sometime this year and help us win a game,” Minaya said.

Figueroa: Had a good spring but was a long shot to make the team coming into camp and was still viewed as expendable by the end of camp. With Takahashi and Nieve in the pen, the Mets felt they didn’t need Figueroa as a long reliever.

Adams/Dessens: Were never really under serious consideration to begin with.

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In an encouraging end to a forgettable spring, Mike Pelfrey did not allow an earned run in six innings. Pelfrey allowed just three hits and no walks and finished with four strikeouts.

The lone run he allowed was unearned because of an error by David Wright, who lost an infield fly off the bat of Carlos Pena in the white roof of Tropicana Field in the second inning.

Pelfrey, who came into the game with a 7.97 Grapefruit League ERA, was bumped from second to fourth in the Mets’ rotation this week. He’ll make his first regular-season start April 9 against Washington.